Apparatus for arranging and conveying bottles and the like



i United States Patent {111 3,538,991

[72] Inventor Burton R. Garrett [56] References Cited 131-12 232nd St.. Laurelton, New York UNITED STATES PATENTS g t: 323 1 3,339,702 9/l9 67 Novak .4 192/331 [45] Patented Nov. 1970 3,425,530 2/1969 Carter 198/331 Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. Primary x mine Rl h r E. Aegerter 638,454, M 15, 1967, now P t t N Att0mey-Bierman and Bierman and Jordan B. Bierman 3,487,908. This application May 1, 1969, Ser. No. 820,863

-.. ABSTRACT: A feeding apparatus in the packaging industry includes a hopper in which articles, such as bottles, are ran- [54] APPARATUS FOR ARRANGING AND CONVEYING domly placed. The apparatus delivers the articles, one at a ggP 3 g P time from each of its channels, in an end-to-end relationship, 1 raw ng at predetermined intervals. The apparatus includes a device to [52] U.S.C| 198/34, separate r i l hich have accidentally become engaged V 198/30 with each other, for example, due to engagement of the [51] Int. Cl. 865g 47/26 threaded necks of two bottles. The separation device includes [50] Field of Search 198/29, 30, a double-acting air piston, a pivotable linkage and a hinged side wall member Patented Nov. 10, 1970 INVENTOR.

BURTON 1Q GARRETT BY Patented Noi-lo, 1970 v v 3,538,991

FIG; 6

INVENTOR.

BURTON R. GARRETT ATT'dRNEY APPARATUS FOR ARRANGING ANDCONVEYING i BOTTLES AND THE LIKE This application is a continuation-in-part application based upon applicants copending US. Pat. application. Ser. No. 638,454, filed May 15, 1967, and entitled Apparatus for'Arranging and Conveying Bottles and the Like (Group 314) and nowU.S. Pat. No. 3,487,908.

The present invention relates to packaging machinery and more particularly to an apparatus for arranging and delivering articles to a receiving machine or hopper.

The packaging industry has attempted to'produce machines which position or align containers at high speeds. As the speed of the machines have increased, it is sometimes found that the containers will connect with each other and jam the machine. In such high-speed machines, the slowing down, jamming or stoppage of the machine is costly in labor and lost production. One difficulty which has been experienced is that bottles having exterior screw threads, particularly plastic bottles, as they are progressed along a conveyor line in an cnd-to-cnd relationship, may temporarily have their screw threads accidentally engaged (partly meshed) together. The bottles are temporarily and incorrectly joined, with the exterior screw threads of one bottle fitting into the exterior screw threads of the next bottle. A similar accidental joining may occur with tapered bottles which become wedged against each other.

It is the objective ofthe present invention to provide a highspeed packaging apparatus, namely, a horizontal preorienting conveyor, in which containers, and particularly bottles, are fed, in an end-to-end arrangement, one at a time from each one ofa plurality ofadjustable channels.

It is a further objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus in which the release of the bottles to the delivery end of the conveyor is timed so that the bottles are delivered at predetermined moments.

It-is a further objective of the present invention to provide a bottle separating device which will separate bottles in those instances .in which their exterior screw threads have accidentally become engaged.

In accordance with the present invention, an apparatus is provided to align and deliver, at predetermined moments, bottles or other articles. The apparatus includes a hopper, into which the articles are .randomly placed, an endless conveyor belt, and adjustable width and height means to form, along the length of the belt, a plurality ofchannels. The bottles are fed, at predetermined intervals, by (l an escapement, which places a pivotable arm in front of each article, and (2) a retarder, which grips the articles from the side. Those articles which'have accidentally become meshed, or otherwise joined, with each other are separated by a separator device. The separator device is, in effect, a portion of the channel side guide, which is swung (gatelike) away from or into the channel, on its hinged pivot. The separator device permits the bottle being released, at the delivery end of the apparatus, to disengage itself from the bottle behind it in the channel, with which it has accidentally become engaged.

Other objectives of the present invention will be apparent fromthe below-detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the container aligning and feeding apparatus;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fractional elevational view of the delivery end oftheapparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an elevational cross-sectional view taken along the line 3-3 ofFIG. 2 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 4 is an clevational cross-sectional viewtaken along line 4-4 olFlG. 2 and looking in the direction ofthe arrows.

FIG. 5 is a Cross-sectional plan view taken along line 5-5 of tit The container aligning and feeding apparatus shown in FIG. I is shown in connection with the transferring and aligning of bottles. It should be understood, however, that the machine may be used for other types of containers or for other similarly shaped articles.

The apparatus 10 includes a loading hopper (bin) 11 into which the bottles are randomly placed. It is the function ofthe machine to take the randomly placed bottles in hopper ll, orient, align and deliver them to the opposite delivery end of the apparatus. The apparatus 10 includes a vibration means 12, operated by a motor, which causes the bottles to become aligned in a single file in each channel. The vibration mechanism of the apparatus is described more fully in the applicants copending US. Pat. application Ser. No. 638,454, filed May l5, 1967. Preferably the vibration mechanism includes bars arranged parallel to the side walls of the channels, which bars are vibrated by a motor mechanism and an eccentric mechanism. A conveyor belt 13, which is an endless broad belt, isdriven around the rotatable rollers or drums 13a and 13b. The conveyor belt operates under an opening in the bottom of the hopper and moves the bottles from the loading hopper II to the receiving hopper 20, or machine, at the opposite end of the apparatus 10. The apparatus is formed preferably with a plurality of channels. The width and the height of the channels is adjustable so that the apparatus may be utilized for various sizes of bottles or other articles. A channel width adjustment means 14 and a channel height adjustment means 15 are provided on the apparatus. A belt angle adjuster 21 is provided connecting the support 22 of the machine and its bottom frame 23.

The present invention is particularly directed to the portion of the apparatus in which the bottles are held until a predetermined moment and prevented from being ejected from the apparatus in a random manner. This is accomplished by means of a bottle retarder 16, a bottle separator 17, and a bottle escapement 18. After passing through the retarder 16, separator I7 and escapement 18 the bottles arrive at the delivery end 19 of the apparatus and are positioned into a receiving bin 20, which may alternatively be a bottle orienting machine.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the bottle retarder portion of the apparatus 10 is particularly described. A bottle 25 is shown as being positioned in the central channel and being conveyed by the belt 13. It should be understood, however, that generally all the channels are filled with bottles, the purpose of showing thcbottles in the central channel being for simplicity of illustration only. Each of the channels has adjustable side walls 26 and 27. The side walls 26 and 27 may be moved inward further towards each other, or away fromeach other, symmetrically, to vary the width ofeach of the channels in accordance with the circumference ofthe bottles or the size of the articles being conveyed. The bottles 25 pass under an adjustable height member 28, which provides a partial top for each of the channels.

A frame 29 of apparatus 10 supports a traverse bar 31. The traverse bar is movable to be oscillated crosswise of the vertical members of the frame 29. First and second arms 31a and 31b, at the ends of the traverse bar 31, have holes within which the limiting rods are fitted. The free length of the traverse guides may be adjusted, such an adjustment determining the length of the crosswise movement of theslidable traverse (cross) bar 31. A suitable adjustable mechanism includes threaded rods threaded through the holes in arms 31a and 31!), the rods each having a handle at its end. The rods are locked in position by a pair of stop nuts. This portion of the apparatus is more fully described in the parent US. Pat. appli cation, Ser. No. 638,454. The traverse bar 31 is attached to the output thrust rod (piston) 32a of a double-action air cylinder 32 by means of yoke 35. The air cylinder 32 is mounted on the frame 29. The inward and outward movement ofthe thrust rod 32a ofthe air cylinder moves the traverse bar 31 back and forth crosswise. Each channel has associated with it a finger grip assembly 33, connected to the traverse bar. Each finger grip assembly 33 descends from the traverse bar.

Each finger grip assembly 33 has a plurality of rubber fingers 34 (flexible rubber rods) which project laterally from the assembly 33. The fingers 34 are moved through holes or slots in the adjustable guide side walls 26. The fingers 34 are moved, upon actuation of the air cylinder 32, inward toward the fixed wall 27, to temporarily grip and hold a bottle. The fingers 34 move back and release the bottle upon reverse actuation of the air cylinder 32.

The bottle escapement mechanism is particularly shown in FIGS. 2 and 4. The escapement mechanism operates by removably placing retarders, such as flat metal members, in front of the line of bottles in each of the channels. An air cylinder is operated to swing the retarders upward and out of the way of the bottles at predetermined intervals. The mechanism includes a double-action air cylinder 42 whose bottom end is fixed to the frame 40. The output thrust rod (piston) 42a of the air cylinder 42 is pivotally connected to a bearing block 44 near one of its ends. The bearing block 44, near its opposite end, has a pivotable connection with a second bearing block 45. The second bearing block 45 is fixed, by means of bolt 46, to a shaft 47 which rocks within bearings within frame 40. Each of the retarders 43 is fixed at its upper end to the shaft 47. Counterclockwise rotation of the shaft 47 causes rotation of each of the retarders 43 in a counterclockwise direction. The counterclockwise motion takes the lower end 48 of the retarder away from the bottle 25, permitting the bottle 25 to proceed to the output end of the apparatus 10.

The bottle separator device is illustrated particularly with reference to FIGS. 2, and 6. As shown in FIG. 5, the threads of one bottle 60 may accidentally engage with the bottle 61 which follows it within the channel. It is the purpose of the bottle separator to separate the bottles and prevent accidentally engaged bottles from proceeding to the output end ofthe apparatus or from jamming the apparatus. The bottle separator mechanism includes a double-action air cylinder 55 having an output thrust rod (piston) 55a. The output thrust rod 55a is pivotly connected to a gate bracket 54, for example, by a bearing. The bracket 54 is welded to the first gate 50a. The gate 50a may be a section, for example, of IO inches long, cut out of the side wall. Each gate 50a-50c has a top round link post 52a, 52b, 52c respectively. Each post is the shaft ofa bearing on the traversely arranged link 53. Each of the gates, at its end toward the delivery end of the apparatus, is hinged on hinges 57a, 57b and 570, respectively. At predetermined times the gates 50a, 50b and 500 are swung sidewise by the reversible air cylinder through the link 53 from their position shown in FIG. 5 to their position shown in FIG. 6. The gates operate on the bottle within the gate, for example, bottle 60 in FIG. 6, permitting the bottle to swing sidewise and causing it to break away from its accidentally engaged preceding bottle 61. The gates may swing both ways, that is, they may swing to the right, as in FIG. 6, and may also swing to the left (not shown) to free the engagement of the screw portions of the bottles which are the mirror images of the engagement shown in FIG. 5. Preferably the timing of the three air cylinders is related so that all three operate substantially simultaneously.

In operation, the conveyor belt conveys the bottles from the hopper ll toward the delivery end of the apparatus. At a predetermined moment, simultaneously, the air cylinders 32,

42 and 55 are actuated. At that moment: (I) each of the sets of fingers 34 grips a bottle, pinching offthe row of bottles and allowing only the first bottle to be conveyed further; (2) the side wall gates 50a50c are swung sidewise to disengage the said first bottle from its following bottle if they are accidentally engaged or overlapped, permitting the said first hottle to be further conveyed; and (3) the rctarder arms 43 swing upward and allow the said first bottle to move over the end of the conveyor.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for the conveyance of articles including a frame, a plurality of drums rotatably mounted on the frame, a

conveyor belt positioned on the drums, means to drive the belt, a plurality of side guide walls connected to the frame and forming at least one channel on the top of the belt in the direction of movement of the belt, means mounted on the frame to grip the articles, said gripping means being operable at selected times and operating to push the article being gripped against a side guide wall, a gate comprising a flat member normally forming a portion of the guide wall and having a pivot at one ofits ends, means connected to said gate and to said frame to swing it sidewise at selected times.

2. Apparatus as in claim I wherein the means to swing the gate is a double-action air cylinder.

3. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the pivot for the gate is a hinge connected to the gate and to a side guide wall.

4. Apparatus as in claim I wherein the gripping means includes a plurality of flexible fingers laterally connected to an arm, the arm is connected to a traverse bar movable slidably upon the same frame crosswise of the direction of travel of the belt, and means to move said bar at selected times.

5. Apparatus as in claim 1 and also including a bottle escapement, said escapement comprising an arm whose first end is selectively positioned in each channel, said arm being connected at its opposite end to a rockable bar for rotation, said bar being rockably mounted in said frame, and means to rock the bar at selected times.

6. In an apparatus for handling articles, a hopper, a conveyor belt operating below the hopper and receiving articles therefrom, at least one channel located beyond above the belt into which the articles enter in a single file and are moved along in the channel by the conveyor belt, means for grippingly engaging each article and holding it against movement when it reaches a point adjacent to the delivery end of the conveyor belt, and means associated with said gripping means to effectively widen a portion of the channel when the gripping means operates to grip an article.

7. In an apparatus according to claim 6 wherein vibrating means above the belt impart a jostling movement to the articles thereon.

8. In an apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the apparatus includes means for releasing the foremost article in the channel after it is released by the gripping means.

9. In an apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the gripping means are flexible fingers which cooperate with parts of the channels in gripping the articles.

10. In an apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the means to effectively widen the channel is a sidewise swingable gate selectively operated by a piston mechanism. 

